Effects of simultaneously performed cognitive and physical training in older adults

Nathan Theill,Vera Schumacher,Rolf Adelsberger,Mike Martin,Lutz Jäncke

doi:10.1186/1471-2202-14-103

Abstract

BackgroundWhile many studies confirm the positive effect of cognitive and physical training on cognitive performance of older adults, only little is known about the effects of simultaneously performed cognitive and physical training. In the current study, older adults simultaneously performed a verbal working memory and a cardiovascular training to improve cognitive and motor-cognitive dual task performance. Twenty training sessions of 30 minutes each were conducted over a period of ten weeks, with a test session before, in the middle, and after the training. Training gains were tested in measures of selective attention, paired-associates learning, executive control, reasoning, memory span, information processing speed, and motor-cognitive dual task performance in the form of walking and simultaneously performing a working memory task.ResultsSixty-three participants with a mean age of 71.8 ± 4.9 years (range 65 to 84) either performed the simultaneous training (N = 21), performed a single working memory training (N = 16), or attended no training at all (N = 26). The results indicate similar training progress and larger improvements in the executive control task for both training groups when compared to the passive control group. In addition, the simultaneous training resulted in larger improvements compared to the single cognitive training in the paired-associates task and was able to reduce the step-to-step variability during the motor-cognitive dual task when compared to the single cognitive training and the passive control group.ConclusionsThe simultaneous training of cognitive and physical abilities presents a promising training concept to improve cognitive and motor-cognitive dual task performance, offering greater potential on daily life functioning, which usually involves the recruitment of multiple abilities and resources rather than a single one.

Highlights

While many studies confirm the positive effect of cognitive and physical training on cognitive performance of older adults, only little is known about the effects of simultaneously performed cognitive and physical training
Physical training, especially in the form of cardiovascular stimulating activity, increases cognitive performance in almost all abilities [9,10,11]. Since both cognitive and physical trainings result in improvements in cognitive abilities, there might be some shared underlying mechanisms that lead to these changes in cognitive performance
Working memory training as well as physical training have been shown to induce functional changes in brain regions of older adults involved in higherorder cognition, such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) or the parietal cortex [11,12,13,14,15]

Summary

Introduction

While many studies confirm the positive effect of cognitive and physical training on cognitive performance of older adults, only little is known about the effects of simultaneously performed cognitive and physical training. Training gains were tested in measures of selective attention, paired-associates learning, executive control, reasoning, memory span, information processing speed, and motor-cognitive dual task performance in the form of walking and simultaneously performing a working memory task Both cognitive and physical trainings have been successfully applied to improve cognitive performance in old age. Brain regions known to be involved in higherorder cognition could promote interconnections with other regions that lead to the observable behavioral changes It has to be determined how exactly cognitive activities such as engaging in working memory tasks and physical activities affect brain functioning, and which different, shared, or complementary mechanisms exist that result in improvements in cognitive performance. Physical exercise is reported to result in structural changes of increased gray or white matter volume in many different regions such as the PFC, the hippocampus, the motor cortex, the temporal cortex or the cerebellum [20,27,28,29]

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